Irish women more obese and less healthy than European counterparts

A new study declares a quarter of Irish women as medically obese and considerably less healthy than other European women.

98FM reported this week that international research shows that strokes, heart attacks and cancer are among the biggest killers of Irish women, and that they are also more likely to die from preventable disease than other Europeans.

Shockingly, the report found that they are also less healthy than their male peers.

Irish women reportedly recorded the fourth highest rate of cancer deaths in Europe while Irish men placed twenty-second. Researchers attribute the Irish statistics to the high of alcohol and cigarette consumption among women there.

The number of Irish women dying from the preventable disease of cervical cancer actually increased in the past two years the study found. And the Irish death rate for breast cancer is the third highest in the EU, despite an improved screening regime, with the figure the same as it was ten years ago.

More Irish women are reportedly admitted to hospital with chronic obstructive pulmonary lung diseases than European women, reflecting the fact that more Irish women smoke cigarettes than other females in the rest of the EU.

The new study found that a quarter of all Irish women are obese, which equates to the third highest level in the EU.